Change in combating tax evasion in drinks

The IRS has published in the Official Gazette Tuesday (18/10) the Executive declaratory Act nº 75, which relieves the beverage industries to use the Sicobe (production control system), from December 13. The Sicobe was established in 2009 to control the production of beverages and combat tax evasion.
With the end of that system, the fiscal control of the sector will be done with the K Block of public Digital bookkeeping System (Sped)-electronic platform that will lead to the Physical State and federal, in real time, data on movements of supplies in stock by industries.
The IRS had already signaled that companies had no intention of re-signing with the paint industry and Brazil Sicpa systems-company that won the bidding to operate the Mint Sicobe. The declaratory Act reinforces this intention. Still, the measure surprised the industry.
In recent months, the IRS conducted a series of meetings with industry representatives to discuss a project of physical control of the production of drinks, with 80% lower cost than Sicobe, which revolves around 1.5 billion R$ year.
The CervBrasil (Brazilian Association of the industry of Beer), Abir (Brazilian Association of manufacturers of soft drinks and non-alcoholic drinks) and the Afrebras (Association of Manufacturers of soft drinks from Brazil) reported that they had a meeting with representatives from the Irs the day 14 this month and showed an interest in maintaining the physical control of the production of drinks to prevent tax evasion.
Criticism the President of Abir, Alexander Jobim, said it was surprised by the extent and considered the declaratory Act a misconception. "The compulsory use of Sicobe was determined by a law. A law cannot be annulled by a declaratory Act, "he said. And added that the contract of Sicpa wins the day on December 12. "From the 13, there was no longer a company to take over control. So this declaratory Act is a misconception, "said Jobim.
The IRS reported that the Mint of Brazil still develops a project of physical production control system to replace the Sicobe, with lower cost. "When the Mint of Brazil complete the development of new technology for counting and tracking production, new acts for executives will be edited to restore mandatory counting system and, consequently, exemption from application of physical seal for hot drinks," the recipe, in a note.
According to the IRS, the adoption of the Sicobe reduced in 20% the tax evasion in the industry. But the choice of company Sicpa was target of Federal Police Vice Operation. The suspicion is that employees of Sicpa paid fees of 100 million R$ the revenue agents and of the Mint, to which the company was favored in the bidding process of the Sicobe.
For the industries, the Sicobe has a fixed cost of 0.03 per unit R$ Voss, regardless of the size and the type of drink. Fernando de Barrios, President of the Association of Manufacturers of soft drinks of Brazil (Afrebras), which brings together small manufacturers of soft drinks, considers that the K Block is enough to curb tax evasion. "And the cost is zero, which favors small industries, which are proportionally more encumbered by the Sicobe," he said.
The other entities support the maintenance of the physical control of the production, together with the K Block, to curb tax evasion. The Abir estimates that, with the Sicobe, the tax evasion in this sector revolves around 500 million R$ per year. Without this control, tax evasion would increase to somewhere between $ 4 billion and 4.5 billion R$ year.